The Range and Beauty of Internal Reconstruction: Probing Hausa Linguistic History
Using examples from Hausa, this paper demonstrates the probative value of Internal Reconstruction (IR) as a method for unearthing linguistic history. Five developments in the history of Hausa discovered by means of IR are described. These are Klingenheben’s Law; two previously unrecognized diphthong...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Warsaw University Press
2014-12-01
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| Series: | Studies in African Languages and Cultures |
| Online Access: | https://salc.uw.edu.pl/index.php/SALC/article/view/99 |
| Summary: | Using examples from Hausa, this paper demonstrates the probative value of Internal Reconstruction (IR) as a method for unearthing linguistic history. Five developments in the history of Hausa discovered by means of IR are described. These are Klingenheben’s Law; two previously unrecognized diphthongs, *iu and *ui; the emergence of the phoneme /h/ from a phonetic feature of word onset; vowel lowering resulting in asymmetry in plural formation; and the preservation of an archaic third person singular masculine pronoun *ni in fixed compounds.
Keywords: Hausa, Klingenheben’s Law, historical linguistics, internal reconstruction, diphthongs, compounds |
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| ISSN: | 2545-2134 2657-4187 |